Laura Schreier moves to another location with her belt sander while working on "The Sanctuary" in the basement of Creators Space on East Seventh Street in St. Paul, on Friday, April 20, 2018. The community and creativity space will have 34,000 square feet divided into spaces for creating photos, pottery, painting, music and dance, along with entrepreneur workspaces, a coffee shop and retail and gallery space. "The Sanctuary" is a hive of wellness areas for massage, meditation and other healing arts practices. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Lupe Almonza works in Creators Space on East Seventh Street in St. Paul, Friday, April 20, 2018. Parts of the main floor will be open for this weekend's Art Crawl. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Melissa Dessart, a co-founder of Creators Space, in the commons area of the community and creativity space on East Seventh Street in St. Paul, Friday, April 20, 2018. The commons area will have couches, chairs and tables to grab coffee or eat. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

A commercial kitchen for cooking classes, chef demonstrations or entrepreneurs to use for food projects will be part of Creators Space. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Former building owner Dave Brooks talks on his cell phone as he checks out the progress at Creators Space on Friday, April 20, 2018. The Buttered Tin and Gopher Bar are seen across the street from Creators Space on East Seventh Street in St. Paul. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Creators Space on East Seventh Street in St. Paul is in a 134-year-old building that was once a furniture store and most recently an indoor parking garage. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Creators Space signs are seen at the East Seventh Street building in St. Paul, Friday, April 20, 2018. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Work continues in the Creators Cup coffee house area in Creators Space in St. Paul, Friday, April 20, 2018. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Workers ready the commons area and coffee house area, rear, on Friday, April 20, 2018. Parts of the main floor of Creators Space will be open during this weekend's Art Crawl. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Co-founder Melissa Dessart works on her laptop, with her journal close by, at Creators Space in St. Paul on Friday, April 20, 2018. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

"It's a family affair," said Melissa Dessart, co-founder of Creators Space, as she talks to her dad, Johnny Loy, who jokingly holds up his face mask on Friday, April 20, 2018. Loy will help managethe space and do behind the scenes maintenance, said Dessart. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Melissa Dessart, co-founder of Creators Space, shows the message -- "craters space is going to open" -- that her daughter wrote in her journal. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Jake Jeans works in the basement area of Creators Space that will have a pottery studio and private studios for lease in St. Paul, Friday, April 20, 2018. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

"The reception desk is made from all of the little treasures we found from the renovation, including brick from the boiler room," said Melissa Dessart, co-founder of St. Paul's Creators Space. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Melissa Dessart looks over the Flow Studio, which will be a yoga, dance and performance space, at Creators Space on Friday, April 20, 2018. Dessart says they hope to start classes Mother's Day weekend and start memberships June 1. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Looking to throw a pot, dance en pointe, get a massage, start up your business, see a chef stir things up, recharge in a salt room, get a new focus on your photography, share a cup of coffee and a few ideas, ease your canvas onto an easel, stretch your yoga skills?

There’s a place for that, and it’s in a new space opening this weekend during the St. Paul Art Crawl.

Creators Space will encompass 34,000 square feet on the main floor and basement at 218 E. Seventh St. in downtown St. Paul’s Lowertown. That’s the 134-year-old building that was once a furniture store and most recently an indoor parking garage.

Founder Melissa Dessart left 19 years in the corporate world to create this confluence of creative endeavors. She and her husband, Kevin, had been looking for a location for their idea — a community and creativity space — when they saw the “for sale” sign at the corner of East Seventh and Wacouta.

“We want to provide opportunities for people to create, but not only to create, but to share with the community,” Dessart says.

She explained there will be three ways to participate:

Grab a cup of coffee and something to eat at the coffee shop, sit in the lounge, check out the retail and gallery space.

Take classes, which will range from yoga to dance to pottery to painting to …

Become a member (for $125-$150 a month) and have full access to the common spaces, as well as the music studio, dance studio, pottery tools, photo studio, entrepreneur space, wellness area and more.

Parts of the main floor of Creators Space will be open during the Art Crawl. Visitors can create a disc this weekend that will be added to a hanging sculpture. Dessart says they hope to start classes Mother’s Day weekend and start memberships June 1.

With so much space and so many options, Creators Space is a little hard to grasp. Here’s a partial tour.

On the main floor, Creators Cup coffee shop will offer beverages and coffee-shop fare to grab and go or enjoy in the nearby lounge/gallery or “library.” Dessart says they’re hoping pottery classes will make cups to donate to the coffee shop — and an example of the community they want to develop in the shared space. Behind the cafe is a commercial kitchen for cooking classes, chef demonstrations or entrepreneurs to use for food projects. Nearby is the “Shutterbox Studio,” or photo studio.

Also on the main floor: a dance studio featuring performance-style lighting and a sprung floor; a painting studio with coveted natural northern light; an open entrepreneur space for office work and meetings — including a mezzanine area with two private meeting rooms; a classroom for writing classes or other projects called the “Learning Lab”; and a members-only collaborative art studio space with easels, drying racks and a garage-door entrance for large projects.

The basement will feature kilns and pottery wheels for members, as well as a pottery classroom space. “The Sanctuary” is a hive of wellness areas for massage, meditation and other healing arts practices, the salt therapy room, yoga classroom space, a members-only lounge and a large music studio in the old boiler room, with two smaller music studios.

Creators Space will have eight private studios that artists can lease, but Dessart stresses that’s not the main purpose of the for-profit venture.

The Dessarts, who have three children and live in Inver Grove Heights, considered making it a nonprofit, Melissa Dessart says, but “it didn’t feel quite right.” They didn’t want decisions to have to go through a board or directors. “We didn’t want to lose that control.”

The Dessarts bought the main floor and basement from St. Paul developer Dave Brooks. His daughter and business partner Jaunae Brooks says they’re excited about the plans. “Just watching the new windows going in was a huge improvement,” Jaunae Brooks said in an email. “I am really excited for the Dessarts. I know they have been working very hard. I love the idea of having a unique space where anyone can find the artist inside them.”

Melissa Dessart had worked for Pella and Target corporations, but she says she always felt her arts and dance background in college drew her to work with “creative minds and creative spirits.”

In a “little bit of a funk” one day, she says she sat down with her journals and tried to clear a creative space in her head to think. That creative space opened up into the concept for Creators Space, she says.

The Dessarts are joined in the venture by Andrea Gerrard Dow and Lana Gendlin Brooks. Dow has experience in building classes and workshops, and Brooks has an extensive background in the arts and culture sector. It pairs well with her expertise in business development, Melissa Dessart says, adding that her husband will have to remain in the corporate world for a while longer.

The Dessarts, Dow and Brooks started working on the Creators Space building in December.

WHAT ARTISTS ARE SAYING

Tom Reynen, member of the St. Paul Art Collective Board: “I appreciate their vision and think they could really fill a need. The Art Collective helped them put out a call for artists to teach classes and they got over 70 responses, including me. I am planning to teach some classes on the business of photography this summer. Given the way they are going to split the revenue from the classes with the artist instructors, it offers artists a valuable way to earn extra income.”

St. Paul artist Tracie Thompson: “I’m a St. Paul artist, new member of the St. Paul Art Collective board, and soon to be painting instructor at the new Creators Space. Creators Space is filling what has been a very noticeable void here in St. Paul: We have scores of artists and no art center — until now.”

Josephine A. Geiger, treasurer of the St. Paul Art Collective Board: “It is a space that is severely lacking in St. Paul. While there are many studio spaces available, most of them are just empty rooms, some with access to water, but not a space where multiple arts disciplines have equipment, infrastructure and access like this all in one location. Plus, they have coffee!”

Kathy has been an arts journalist for almost 25 years. Her career goal is to interview all four Monkees, and she's three-fourths of the way there. (Yes, she did talk to Davy Jones before he died.) She loves Twin Cities theater and is a huge fan of the St. Paul Winter Carnival and the Minnesota State Fair.

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